The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-07-30
, auu hat. ~ngeuuereu ny the war III 'he
form OF another old.fashioned bloody shir'
crusade aud howl against the $, nth.
THEY DISCUSS THEIR HONESTY.

your editor was pouring hot shot into the
"independent" press; but the develop
ments of the week have been such that
cannot refrain from uftering just one little
word of did | tell you?" Al that time
there was little chance Of so "clinchiDg'
our argument, AS only IN admission OF the
truth could do; but since my last letter that
admission has come and In the most EN-
phatic form Parks has revealed the facts
In the Joliet Press scandal (and In the
light of Col Plumb's prediction state
ments and his post election acts, 1t was
nasty scandal; while the fact that Henry
Mayo, Esq, is of counsel In the case OF
Weeks vs.. Ottdnd JOUrHdl crowds, Is pretty
conclusive evidence VI Col. Plumb's inter.
est In that delectable sheet There only
remains now the StreatOr cases, ] am,
therefore, pleased 10 note that Johnny For
nof has at last had change of heart,
goaded Ms he has been by the prods Of the
Ind Times and gracefully throws flood
your editorials published Immediately be.
fore and Immediately after election:-that
the Ind Times had received money for its
support of Col. Plumb, the &c. o. NJ of
Streatur, and that the Free Press had de
manded the same sort of recognition. For
nof, of course, doesn't say he received any
money in fact, he expressly aitirms now
that he did not but he does say In his
edition of Tuesday last in answer to the
Ind Times burst Of honesty
The Free Press, not one Of lis proprie.
| tors did make a demdBd Vp0n Cal. Plumb,
rhcn he tcJs a cdHliddte FIR congress. Col.
| Plumb and his republican friends had con
rriLuted something like : 800 To start the
| IHdepcHdcHt, which was 10 be their organ
in the posruiice fight In Order that Col.
! Plumb coUld make an GHiddCU that he had
nothing to do with the IudepcadeHt, the
rer,ipt for his SubScEptiOH as we'll Ms that of
| r'awCetts WAS made out 10 MIR. John III
Shay, and Mr.. Shay really thought he had
an interest in the independent until the
consolidation, when he innocently asked
| DR. Evans, or some other stakeholder,
about the status of affairs, and he was in
| formed that he was too fresh that the
money placed there was for Il purpose, and
that purpose had been accomplished.
The FREE Press knew the facts, and,
having supported Col Plumb TO the best
of its ability, seeing him contributing To
and maintaining independent papers which
supported him alone and the remainder of
Itl a ia, ~ at in OF
that the maintaining of party press in the
district was of more importance than his
personal elevation to office. He was told
that, having supported him faithfully,
without reward or prospects OF reward, we
would not gently submit to seeing him
build up an opposition to the straight re.
publican press here as he had in Ottawa
JouInaL and Joliet Press He asked
what we thought he should do, and was
told we wanted TO be placed in the same
relative position we occupied previous 10
his Interference in StreatOr journalism
one of three daily papers Upon his de-
claring this TO be an impossibilty he asked
| if it could not be arranged in some other
way, but was told that so far as money was
concerned we would accept no less than
was contributed to the iadependent. The
position of the Free Press was that under
| the circumstances il was under no party or
other obligation to support Col. Plumb, and
| felt that until he had done as well by the
party press as he had done by the indepen-
| dent democratic press, we could not con-
sclentiously support him.
Arbitration was agreed to, the county
central committee first being chosen, then
at Col. Plumb's request Mr.. Cherry was
substituted. While driving out TO see Mr.
Cherry at the new shaft one morning the
Colonel admitted he had innocently done
us an injury and requested that the matter
be dropped before seeing Mr.. Cherry,
promising at the same time he would make
due restitution. what he did do lcds realty
magnanimOuS. He or his fyiends informed
tie editOr If his organ, the independent, that
| tie Free Press had tried 10 bidckmaa him.
In other words, after, as Fornof says
having expressed deep contrition and
asked us Fornof to leave the matter &c
his own sense of justice and honor" Col
Plumb goes back to town, tells the Ind.
| Times and his friends that Fornof had tried
to blackmail him, goes back on his bar
gain, pockets his "sense of justice and
honor" and Johnny gets left, But did he
| 1t seems to me that Fornof had sand
enough and was too clever to get left or
the deal' after carrying it as far as he did
| am also amused at the admission OF
Fornol on Thursday last, which tallies ex-
actly also with what | wrote you last fall
and what you yourself said in your editor
ials. Fornof then was very verbose in his
praises of the G.. o. Ms purity of political
methods. Now he says:
| Col. Plumb, as a citizen, Is beyond re
proach. His character is worthy of the
! deepest admiration. Is n politician he en-.
bottles those elements TINT are most destruc-
tire 10 society, AMI IRE bt3jere he ,o0uId sdcrt
fire nancy and .JrtendSbtp To make a poin'
for himself
| see, too the cellar of this city takes {
hand. The cellar knows what decency Is
Il does. Rose is an expert when II comes
to point of decency. One OF these days
It is limited, he means to rake up the ole
files of Roses Nose of Detroit, and com
pile a book on decency, So Rose nov
bursts forth with
Ii is due to decency, due to Col Plumt
as a man, due TO the readers OF all news
Ill. Il Il